1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging device and an imaging method, and specifically, to an imaging device having an image blur correction mode suitable for the case of continuously taking images of multiple frames while rotating the imaging device in one direction (swing movement) in a panoramic imaging mode or the like, and an imaging method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an imaging device such as a digital camera, there is known a panoramic imaging mode that: continuously takes images of multiple frames while rotating the camera (swing movements such as panning and tilting); combines them by performing predetermined operation processing on parts in which the angles of views of the multiple taken images of multiple frames overlap with each other; and generates one panoramic image (see PTL 1 to PTL 5).
Moreover, in PTL 3 to PTL 5, there is suggested that image blur correction is performed so as not to cause the rotation blur (image blur) even if the camera is not stopped at the time of taking the image of each frame (exposure) in the imaging in a panoramic imaging mode (panoramic imaging).
According to PTL 3, the rotation blur is suppressed by displacing the position of the imaging area of an imaging element at the exposure time of each frame and suppressing the position change between the imaging area and a subject image formed on the imaging area. Moreover, by displacing the imaging area to the position of the subject image turned by a predetermined rotation angle in a non-exposure period, a state is provided where it is possible to suppress the rotation blur in the next exposure period.
According to PTL 4 and PTL 5, unlike PTL 3 in which the position of the imaging area is changed as a correction operation unit displaced to suppress the rotation blur, the rotation blur is suppressed by moving the optical axis of an optical system that forms a subject image in an opposite direction to the rotation direction of the camera to suppress the position change in the imaging area and the subject image. Moreover, similar to PTL 3, a state is provided where it is possible to suppress the rotation blur in the next exposure period by returning the optical axis of the optical system to the center of a range of movement (correction center) or over the position in a non-exposure period.
Also, in the present specification, as for an image blur correction mode that tries not to cause the image blur (rotation blur) due to the swing movement of a camera at the time of continuously taking images of multiple frames while causing the camera to perform the swing movement in one direction like the panoramic imaging mode, it is referred to as “swing correction mode.”
Also, generally, the centripetal force (a signal corresponding to the centripetal force) that returns a correction operation unit to the correction center is added to a control signal (target position signal) that controls the position of the correction operation unit to prevent image blur correction from not being appropriately performed when the correction operation unit reaches the edge position of a predetermined range of movement and the correction operation is restricted, in control of the correction operation unit that performs operation within the range of movement to suppress the image blur (see PTL 6).    PTL 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-101895    PTL 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-232275    PTL 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-38442    PTL 4: Japanese Patent No. 4135046    PTL 5: Japanese Patent No. 3928222    PTL 6: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-39295